France to overhaul secularism teaching to help stop radicalisation

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

France to overhaul secularism teaching to help stop radicalisation

Education minister says pupils should be taught that separation of church and
state is there to protect them, accusing rightwing politicians of twisting principle

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thursday 21 January 2016 06.00 GMT

The French principle of secularism has been twisted by politicians and so often wrongly used to attack Islam that schoolchildren have been left baffled, the French education minister has warned.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told the Guardian that after last year’s devastating jihadi attacks in Paris, France was overhauling the teaching of secularism and civic values as part of the country’s drive against terrorism and radicalisation.

“We have to reappropriate the concept of laïcité (secularism) so we can explain to our young pupils that whatever their faith, they belong to this idea and they’re not excluded. Secularism is not something against them; it protects them,” she said.

Since last January’s attacks on the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher supermarket, when 17 people were killed, and November’s attacks that killed 130, French schools have taken centre-ground in the nation’s soul-searching on how young French men could take up guns against their fellow citizens.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/france-overhaul-secularism-teaching-anti-radicalisation-paris-attacks

[rug]

1. That's an interesting shift in emphasis.